Troublesome
by Dr. Jerk
Summary: B.M. Tournament fic. Oneshot, slight AU. After no word from officer Max is heard, Shirobon White Bomberman is sent out to find him, only to get into a lot of troubling problems along the way. Will he need to seek the help from a Pommy charabom?


**Author Notes:  
**This_ Bomberman_ fanfiction is a very short novelization of the beginning of _Bomberman Tournament_ (also known as _Bomberman Story_) for the _Game Boy Advance_. This fanfiction only covers one section of the game's story mode, the beginning, and there will be no further chapters. This is also slightly AU. Do note that there are also some references to other _Bomberman_ titles such as _Bomberman Jetters._ In addition, although I have played several _Bomberman_ titles before, I only know a few things on the franchise so there may be errors in this fanfiction, please bare in mind with that. Thank you.

_Bomberman, _its characters, themes and stories are trademarked to Hudson Soft. I do not claim these as my own and this is merely a fan-work based on the franchise.

* * *

**Troublesome**

It had been quiet lately. And as a result, not much had been done within the past few months, or what would be considered a month within the large station that floated so silently within the vast space of the Bomber Galaxy. There had been no calls to duty, no rush-ins with previous enemies, there wasn't even a lot of drills either. Things had been pretty peaceful within the space station of the intergalactic police force, to the very point where it was starting to become a little boring even for the white bomber who served there, Shirobon.

At least, this only seemed to apply to him, for the police force still gotten many calls. It's just that Shirobon had not been contacted to handle these small situations in awhile, and instead others were called to serve instead. It was also a little understandable, as Shirobon was usually only assigned to handle the bigger tasks, of which there had not been much lately. Neither the Hige-Hige Bandits or any previous foe had striked back recently. Granted, this was a good thing, and nothing more but peace was enough to make the white bomber grin from ear to ear, if he had a mouth that is. But having been so accustomed to his long, adventures of his past, the boredom was starting to sink in. He had been wishing that one day he would be given one of the smaller tasks to take on, but there had been none meant for him, and nothing big lately either.

But actually, something apparently 'big' had happened about a week ago, or so Shirobon had heard. A few days ago, the planet of Phantarion had issued an distress signal which had been heard by the police force. From what they could make out from the signal, five multicolored meteors had crashed onto the planet, and since then the small planet had been 'overthrown into chaos'. Unfortunately the S.O.S. was quick and vague, it had not provided much information on the planet's current situation at hand. What exactly were these meteors and what sort of 'chaos' had it brought? The most logical sense would be that the meteors could have brought heavy destruction to the planet, especially a small one as itself. But upon looking at the planet from their distance, the police force discerned that the planet did not appear to have been 'destroyed', which would have likely been the case if five meteors had struck a planet that small.

What's more, the news of these meteors was quite sudden and unexpected. If other planets and stars had seen such a dazzling sight as 'five meteors with different colors' , it certainly would be considered suspicious and would be reported to the police force right away. But only Phantarion had made such an observation., and was supposedly hit by them. Given all of these factors, it seemed almost improbable that multicolored meteors had appeared and crashed into it.

Ultimately, this entire claim seemed to be highly suspicious. But instead of ignoring their plea for help, Shirobon's supervisor, Dr. Ein, had sent out another high-ranker, Max, to go investigate. And Shirobon was not included.

That was little over a week ago, and Max had only contacted the police force once during his investigation."Since arriving here, I had noticed several strange buildings built in various places across the planet's four regions, of which the people here speak highly of. I have not tread into these territories yet, but I can see a tall, frozen structure in the horizon. I have high suspicions of this specific tower, and I shall venture inside very soon…" These were a few of his exact words from the last investigation report he made.

And indeed, the sound of these 'strange' buildings did sounded very peculiar, but not enough for the force to send out more men to Phantarion. After all, no one knew if these structures were even related to the meteor claim. No one knew for sure, especially since almost no one on the force had ever went to the planet before the distress call.

Either way, Max had never been heard again since that last report, and no more word on the planet was heard either from anyone. The force had tried to contact Max multiple times, but had failed each time. Had Max really gone into that frozen structure he reported seeing, and what happened to him now? No guesses could be made, and it was beginning to concern everyone on the force, Shirobon as well.

But even though this had worried him, Shirobon knew that there was no time to worry, even though he still had no assignments to date and at this he had sighed at. This entire time he had been sitting in his small bomber jet, parked neatly within the docks of the police station and had been thinking this over constantly, all while spinning around in his chair and pressing a few buttons on the dashboard to check his surroundings and statistics. Perhaps it was quite selfish of him, but he truly was bored out of his wits.

He had spun around his chair again to the right, where his eyes had set upon a small picture frame, housing a photo of his home planet, Planet Bomber. He leaned the side of his head against his pink hand and groaned. He had been longing to return home for awhile, even if that meant being cooped up in the Bomber Base for months on end. He could really use a few bomb matches against a couple of other bombers actually…

And he would have continued to yearn for home, if hadn't a loud beep had been heard from behind. Slowly the younger bomber had turned his head around…

And noticed that it was Dr. Ein, on the jet's screen.

"Shirobon, Shirobon come in!" The doctor's voice had breathed, sounding somewhat urgent.

Immediately Shirobon had jumped onto his pink feet and greeted the doctor with a small salute. "Bomberman Shirobon reporting, sir!"The doctor's voice had quieted down a little. "Shirobon, we have an assignment for you…"

"And it's about Max…"

* * *

About a day or so of space travel had passed, a day's worth of journeying that would have anticipated the white bomber even more had it not been the kind of job that Dr. Ein had assigned him the day before. There was a certain flair of seriousness to this case that Shirobon had been given. It wouldn't be right for him to become excited that his boredom would soon be relieved, he had to take this one seriously. And after many hours of jetting across the galaxy and watching stars streak by, Shirobon had neared his next destination, the small planet of Phantarion.

Yesterday, Shirobon had been called in for a 'big task'. A whole week of not hearing back from Max was very concerning and certainly not like of him. What made things worse was that the people of Phantarion had very recently sent out another S.O.S., asking why no help had been sent out, when in fact the police force had, by sending out Max. The planet's unknown situation was becoming very troubling, and the force had no choice but to send out their next highest-ranking officer, Shirobon, to go find Max and follow up on his investigation.

But ultimately, to search for the whereabouts of Max, and this Shirobon had accepted.

Shirobon had immediately left that day, and by the afternoon (or at least what would be afternoon on the space station) had arrived at the planet Phantarion, where it was morning-coming-up-for-noon there. Dr. Ein had specifically told Shirobon to land in the forest region of the planet, where Max had first started, and his jet had safely landed in a small village that the townsfolk called 'Alpha', and Shirobon had immediately left his jet and begun his investigation as he approached the people there.

From his short time within the village, Shirobon had learned much from the villagers about their home planet, which was very valuable information to him. According to what they had to say, Phantarion was also home to charaboms, which made Shirobon very glad to hear. The charaboms were creatures of many different shapes and sizes that Shirobon had worked with before multiple times. The charaboms can grant special abilities to those that befriend them, and Shirobon had a funny feeling that he would be needing quite a few charabom friends in the long run, especially considering how slow and tedious his search for Max might be.

The only problem was that charaboms aren't exactly always easy to befriend, and will not bother to aid anyone if they do not wish to be acquainted with them. And even then, finding a charabom would probably be very difficult, let alone making friends with one. And while Shirobon is capable of performing many tasks on his own, after all he had done numerous jobs alone before, the need of assistance that he felt was still great. Not to mention that the villagers have also been complaining, among other things, that there was a traveling boy blocking the only real exit out of the village, asking people to challenge their charaboms to a fight against his own, a large Dracko that can breath fire. Unfortunately for the townsfolk, they all lacked charabom friends. This was proving to be even more burdensome for the white bomber, as he really wanted to continue on with his search and the traveler simply did not wish to move until someone challenged him. This only made Shirobon's want to find a charabom greater.

There was however, another forest just north of the village, however it was closed off from the rest of the world and did not lead anywhere specific. Some people have told Shirobon that they had seen a charabom from time to time living in the woods, but has strangely not been seen since. And even then, most people considered the sight of that charabom to be a mirage almost, especially since no person wanted to tread into the woods where dangerous vines would certainly try to grab them and tangle them to the point of no escape, among other dangers.

Either way, there seemed to be realistically no way of leaving the village. Shirobon still had his jet in handy, but Dr. Ein had insisted that he landed and began his investigation in this very village. And even then, his jet was low on fuel which the villagers also lacked. So unless someone were to challenge the travelling road-block-of-a-person or to wait until he left, Shirobon could not leave whatsoever.

Asking around the village hadn't taken too much time, but in a way Shirobon did wish it could have lasted a little longer, maybe by then the traveler and his Dracko would have left by then, if lucky. However during his look-around in Alpha, Shirobon had met an elder photographer by the name of Temmay. While this person did not know much, he had expressed interest in photographing a photo of a rare animal who lives in the northern forest, an animal called Louie that Shirobon immediately recognized by name. He and other bombermen have also been acquainted with Louie animals before, and they would occasionally ride them for their amazing jumping ability or other abilities depending on their fur color. Although Temmay only wanted to get a good photograph of this animal, which Shirobon had accepted and was lent a small camera to use.

Granted, there was more important things to do during his investigation, Shirobon really had no where else to go and figured that finding Louie would pass the time, maybe enough for that traveller to finally leave, or so he hoped. And who knows, maybe this Louie will allow Shirobon to ride him and help him leave the village, or maybe he would find that 'mirage charabom' that everyone had spoken of before. Maybe he might even find more clues to Max which the villagers could not offer much of, there was just no telling that would be in that forest.

And this was precisely why Shirobon at this very moment was walking amongst the huge forest, which he soon realized to be very maze-like and ridden with obstacles everywhere. It quickly became clear on the dangers that the villagers had mentioned, and Shirobon was grateful that he had brought a small rucksack with him to keep the camera in, as he needed both of his bomb-producing hands to keep the obstacles and innocent looking-but-dangerous balloon enemies at bay.

Loud explosions of bombs were heard every now and then, which was alarming both the small animals pf the woods and the villagers staying in the safety of Alpha, and although it was difficult they soon all got used to the loud noises and rumbles that would follow. Shirobon was really only the one having a tough time. Exploding away vines that would immediately regrow, defeating enemies quickly and jumping into pipe-like tree stumps that would take him elsewhere in the forest was proving to be quite laborious on his robotic body, not to mention it was considerably stressful.

And to think, he hadn't even gone that far from the village, which he had realized when he had looked back and sighed…

Eventually, the sun was beginning to raise higher in the sky, making the grasslands feel hotter but the forests remained shaded by their tree canopies. It became quite clear that several Phantarion hours had passed and its world had now taken the appearance of a late afternoon. And as for Shirobon, he was extremely tired out at this point. For hours he had been running and dodging the many obstacles and had been jumping into tree stumps to reach new areas, only to constantly find himself in more problematic areas or to find that he returned right where he had started, or near that. It's almost no wonder why no one could find Louie or that spoken-of charabom anywhere in this nightmarish forest, and the white bomber was quickly starting to regret ever taking this task of finding that rabbit and kangaroo-like animal to photograph, and was really starting to wish he could find the way out of this forest. But still he ran without stopping, or else the foes and vines would close in on him.

As he ran around the corner of trees and quickly placed a bomb on the ground to explode into the persisting vines, Shirobon had noticed that he was nearing another one of those tree stumps that lead straight to the ground, and had immediately jumped within it, falling to its bottom and rolling along the way until he was forced out of another tree stump elsewhere in the woods. He landed onto his rubbery, pink feet with a small plop and noticing that there were no vines or foes nearby, and plopped to the ground for much needed rest and nearly gasped for air.

Shirobon had also taken the time to glance around his surroundings and when his eyes had set upon Alpha in the distance, his face had immediately lighten up with hope! But their were many trees blocking the way and as much as Shirobon hated to admit it, he would need to find another warping tree stump to get back. The white bomber had groaned in irritation and disappointment as he stood back onto his sore feet. There was no sense just waiting around here doing nothing, and he was about to resume his endless running…

…when he had heard something nearby and stopped to listen. A small cry could he heard in the distance, and the white bomber had crocked his head to the source of it and rose an eyebrow in confusion. What exactly was that? At first he thought it was an outcry of an animal, which he had heard plenty of since coming here, mostly of small birds. But this cry sounded different and was constant, it certainly was very strange. Deciding to investigate, Shirobon had sprang forward and ran to the source of the sound.

And around the corner, he had skidded to an immediate stop with a surprised expression on his face. In front of him was a charabom trapped within two branches of vines, and it was crying out for help urgently! Shirobon took a few cautious steps forward and upon closer look, noticed that it was not just any sort of charabom, but a brown Pommy!

"Myu! Myuuuu!" It squeaked as it tried its best to struggle out of the vines, but this was only exhausting the poor creature.

Not wishing to abandon the helpless charabom, Shirobon had immediately produced two black bombs in each of the palms of his pink hands and quickly went to the vines and placed the two near each, which the Pommy had not noticed nor had it noticed Shirobon's arrival. Shirobon quickly went back to a safe distance as he stood back to watch. And while he did not wished to resort to the use of bombs to help the creature, it was the only thing he really had on him and just hoped that the Pommy would be alright…

A huge blast was sounded as a fiery explosion had raged forth, resulting in a loud scream of a "Myuuuuu!", making Shirobon shudder in worry and guilt. The blasts were so huge that he could not see what had really happened, but then noticed that the brown animal had suddenly been flung out by the power of the bombs and had landed onto the rugged ground with a loud thud, just as the smoke had began to clear up. Shirobon's worrisome expression had turned into shocked eyes as he witness the charabom laying on the ground nearly motionless, and quickly the white bomber had ran over to its side. The poor charabom was covered in bruises and patches of its soft fur had been turned had covered his mouth, had he done this Pommy in?

Shirobon had leaned in for a closer look, but was sent back plopping onto his blue bottom when the animal had suddenly began to cough violently with 'myus' in between coughs as the white bomber watched back in surprise, and relief that the Pommy appeared to be alright. The charabom soon pushed itself up onto its feet, as it continued to hack and wheeze the smoke that was inhaled into its lungs. A small, shiny object had been dropped to the ground in the process, but no one had noticed it. Eventually the Pommy had ceased coughing but still appeared to be in a daze, that is until it rose its head (which was part of its rounded body) and stopped as it noticed the bomberman. There was deep silence between the two, until the Pommy suddenly gasped as it realized something and franticly looked at its darkened fur.

"Myuu! Eew! Eeeew! Pommy's fur is all grey and burnt!" The charabom had panicked as it waved its paws around. Shirobon continued to stare back at the creature, unable to say or do anything.

It had then immediately fixed its gaze back at the white bomber, surprising him with a very angry glare.

"You!" It snapped as it pointed at Shirobon. "Myu! You did this to me!"The Pommy had stomped towards Shirobon as he tried to pull himself away from the angry charabom.

"Myu! Pommy does not like burnt fur, Pommy no like explosions! Grrrr, Pommy doesn't like YOU!" The animal continued to rant as it shook a fist back at Shirobon, and Shirobon still couldn't say a word.

It had then turned its head around, nose in the air. "Myu!" It simply said and had then ran off.

"Wait!" Shirobon called as he stood back onto his feet, but the charabom was already gone and Shirobon had sighed and glanced back at the ground.

Which was then a shiny object had caught his attention which he had picked up for a closer look. It was a small ring with a tiny red gemstone. It was then that Shirobon had remembered that he had met a little girl while he was in the village, who was crying that she had lost her mother's ring when the 'mirage charabom' had came and stole the ring from her, which had apparently happened very recently. Was this Pommy the supposed 'mirage charabom' that the townsfolk had often mentioned? Shirobon had met and worked with charaboms before, and many Pommies as well. He had never expected a common charabom as a Pommy to be that 'mirage'. Shirobon had merely sighed and had put the small ring into his knapsack with the intention of giving it back to the little girl, provided if he can even find his way out of these woods…

And with that tired thought, Shirobon had turned around the corner, ready to continue his incredibly long trek to find the way out of these accursed woods.

* * *

Things had taken a turn for the better, as after all of those long hours in the forest, Shirobon had finally found his way to the out of the woods and was back in the village, where the townsfolk were getting ready to finish their long day's worth of chores. And Shirobon had never been any happier to finally be back in civilization. He felt so happy that he could kiss the ground, which he didn't but he was nonetheless incredibly happy to finally be out of the woods.

He had walked to the center of the village as he looked around to see if there had been any notable changes since he had last been here. Upon taking a look at the village's exit, he was disappointed to find that the traveler was still there and still demanding for challenges that the villagers could not possibly provide, when will that boy learn and leave? Shirobon sighed. To think, he had been desperate for an assignment and had gotten something that was incredibly tiresome and stressful. He turned to his side and noticed two of the village's houses, one being the home of Temmay the photographer and the other where the little girl and her mother lives. Shirobon knew that he would greatly disappoint Temmay, but knew that the little girl would be very happy when he returns her mother's ring to her. And that's just what he was about to do as he headed straight to the door of her house.

A cheerful glee was heard inside when Shirobon had given her back the ring, and although he expected nothing in return, the little girl had given him a small bottle of medicine that could instantly heal wounds and cure most other ailments. It was small and therefore could not recover much, but Shirobon was so happy to have a potion of this that he immediately gulped it down as the child smiled as she watched. It immediately healed half of Shirobon's wounds and he instantly felt much happier. The two had thanked each other and Shirobon had turned to leave the small house.

And outside was greeted by the harsh sunshine of the sun as he shaded his eyes with his arm, it definitely was a late afternoon…

"Myu!" A squeak came from below.

Shirobon glanced to the ground and saw that the same Pommy from before had returned, now with half of its fur cleaned. It looked like had jumped into a lake, but its fur was already almost dry. Shirobon was expecting the charabom to continue its angry rant, but instead it patiently watched him. The white bomber had then knelt closer to the ground to hear what the charabom had to say.

"Myuu, I'm sorry that I didn't thank you before…" The Pommy had quietly said, looking quite guilty.

But instead Shirobon had only smiled and nodded. "That's no problem at all." He had answered.

"You're not angry at Pommy?" The Pommy had mewed questionably, and had then crossed its arms. "Well! Pommy still don't like your explosions, but Pommy can forgive you."Shirobon had chuckled and smiled back at the creature. He had met Pommies before, which had always amused him. The Pommy had also grinned until Shirobon had stood back up, ready to leave.

"Wait! Myu!" Pommy cried, and Shirobon glanced back down expectantly.

"Who are you anyway?" Pommy asked. "Pommy never seen a person like you before!"It had then looked over to its side and noticed the bomberman's jet still parked neatly in the corner of the village. "Wow! Pommy never seen that either! Is that yours?" It exclaimed.

"Me? My name is Bomberman Shirobon." Shirobon answered as he showed Pommy the police force badge that he wore on his chest, which looked very much like a gold feather. "I am an officer of the intergalactic police force. And yes, that jet does belong to me.""Myu! Bomberman?" Pommy had question. "That's a nice name! But Pommy's name is better! And what are you doing here anyway? Shouldn't you be chasing down space criminals?"

Shirobon chuckled a bit at Pommy's response, the other Pommies he had met before had similar attitudes.

"I am on a mission to find a friend here…""…And to help this planet out." He added.

"Myuu? Help the planet?" Pommy asked in a confused stare. "Pommy heard villagers speak of meteors many times, is that what you mean? Pommy didn't know the world was in trouble!"The two had both sat down as Shirobon had taken the time to explain what had happened at this point to the brown charabom, which had taken longer than expected as Pommy had kept constantly interrupting Shirobon by asking questions and exclaiming things. It truly didn't know what had been happening.

"…And that's what has happened…" Shirobon had concluded, and sighed at just how long it took for him to explain it.

Pommy had immediately stood back onto its feet. "Pommy don't like this at all! Pommy never knew these meteors was enough for the people to call out for help! And what's more, your friend is missing!"

"Pommy wants to help, right now!"Shirobon had stood up surprised, not expecting to hear that. "W-What?"

"You heard Pommy! Myu! Pommy wants to help Bomberman in saving the whole wide world and finding this Max person!"

Shirobon rolled his eyes a little. The planet of Phantarion wasn't in that much trouble, but then again, things have been getting very strange lately. But regardless, he was very happy to hear this and held his hands together with hope in his eyes.

"Really? You want to help me?"

"Yes!" Pommy answered. "Pommy will help you with my special ability, and more!"

"What ability do you have?" The bomber had asked.

"Pommy can teleport people." It answered simply.

"Teleport?" Shirobon exclaimed. "I've never heard of a Pommy that could do that!"Pommy had giggled. "Heehee! Pommy must be a very special Pommy then! Pommy can teleport people to nearby towns, that's how Pommy visits this village!"

"I see." Shirobon had said simply with a smile. He then held out his hand. "So, this a deal? You'll help me?""For sure!" Pommy said as it shook the bomber's hand. "Just tell me what needs to be done! Let's go! Pommy wants to explore all sorts of areas and fight many baddies!"

Shirobon had stood up as he rubbed his chin in thought. "Well, there's one thing…""Really, what is it?" Pommy asked with hope in its eyes. "Pommy can do anything!"

"There's this traveler with a Dracko who is blocking the roa-" Shirobon began."Ohhhhh…" Pommy interrupted, not looking too confident now. "Pommy heard of traveler before, he had been there for weeks…"

"Weeks?" Shirobon exclaimed in shock.

"Uh… um… Pommy is very strong! The toughest Pommy around! But uh, Pommy can't really fight yet…" Pommy said while rubbing his paws together."…Yet?" Shirobon asked as he rose an eyebrow. Typical of Pommies to try to worm themselves out of things…

"Pommy still needs training.. Uh yeah that's it!" Pommy answered. "Charabom fights are common here, and so is training!""How does a charabom train?" Shirobon asked. Charabom fighting was still a little new to him, and was probably exclusive to this planet.

"Certain grasses or other things can be burned to reveal special food underneath, if a charabom eats these, it gets stronger." Pommy answered, honestly this time.

"There's some in the forest where I come from!"Shirobon had immediately shuddered, he honestly did not wanted to go back into those woods.

"Hmph! You shouldn't chicken out of this one, c'mon!" Pommy tried to urge him by pulling onto his white tights, but Shirobon continued to resist.

"We might even find Louie there!" Pommy growled as it tried to pull harder.

Shirobon had stopped. "Louie? You know the animal Louie?" He asked the small charabom.

Pommy looked up and smiled. "Louie is Pommy's best friend, we live together in the forest! You want to meet Louie?"

"Well, I did wanted to get a photograph of him…" Shirobon mentioned.

"Then let's go already!" Pommy exclaimed as it ran behind Shirobon's legs and literally began to push him towards the forest as the white bomber tried to resist again while flailing his arms.

"W-Wait, can't we wait until tomorrow?" Shirobon cried.

"There is no time! Let's go train and find Louie!" Pommy resumed.

And so, off the two 'brave' heroes had went, treading into territories that made each uncomfortable. Shirobon into mazes, and Pommy into charabom fights, and much more. To both, it was only the start of an incredibly long journey as more revelations of the planet's situation was revealed, more friends made, and old enemies discovered. Whether Bomberman Shirobon and the many charabom friends he made were trekking in the forest zone, the tropics, the snowy mountains or the boiling hot desert region, there was always something new awaiting for them.

…Just as several fiendish foes had watched their progress from afar…

_**The End.**_


End file.
